Sarah joins King-Riggs movie

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Sarah has been signed to the soon-filming Battle of the Sexes.

Sarah Silverman has joined the cast of Battle of the Sexes, Fox Searchlight’s telling of the epic tennis match between Billie Jean King and former Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs.

Emma Stone is portraying King while Steve Carell is on board as Riggs. Also in the cast are Andrea Riseborough and Elizabeth Shue, among others. The project is based on King and Riggs’ now-infamous 1973 tennis match, where the No. 2-ranked female tennis pro defied the odds to beat the retired former Wimbledon champion.

Silverman will play Gladys Heldman, the founder of World Tennis magazine, who also helped organize King and other female players on a separate women’s only circuit when they felt they weren’t being paid as much as male players. Heldman was later inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

The movie is looking to begin production in April. Simon Beaufoy wrote the script and Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine) are directing.

Silverman is coming off her well-regarded dramatic performance in I Smile Back, which earned her a SAG nomination, and will next be seen in Universal’s comedy Popstar: Never Stop Stopping.